Trump Reportedly to Move US Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem

by Stephen Lendman

According to his senior advisor Kellyanne Conway, it's a "big priority" for him. "He made it pretty clear during the campaign…and as president-elect, I've heard him repeat it several times privately, if not publicly."

Israel annexed East Jerusalem illegally, wanting it made exclusively Jewish - occupying it in June 1967, along with the entire West Bank and Gaza. The June 30, 1980 Basic Law declared "Jerusalem, complete and united, is the capital of Israel."

A unanimously passed same day Security Council Res. 476 (America abstaining) declared "all legislative and administrative measures and actions taken by Israel, the occupying Power, which purport to alter the character and status of the Holy City of Jerusalem have no legal validity and constitute a flagrant (Fourth Geneva) violation."

In 1947, before Israel's self-declared statehood, General Assembly Res. 181 internationalized Jerusalem as a separate body (a corpus separatum), administered by a UN Trustee Council, a policy still binding.

Unanimously passed Security Council Res. 478 (America again abstaining) "censured (Israel) in the strongest term" for enacting the Jerusalem Basic Law - but never enforced accountability.

East Jerusalem is illegally occupied territory. Stealing its land and dispossessing its rightful Palestinian owners flagrantly violates international law.

Fourth Geneva, Article 49 forbids "(i)ndividual or mass forcible transfers, as well as deportations or protected persons from occupied territory…"

"The Occupying Power (is prohibited from) deport(ing) or transfer(ing) parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies."

In 1995, during the Clinton co-presidency, Congress violated longstanding international law, passing the Jerusalem Embassy Act.

It declared Jerusalem to be Israel's capital, ignoring Palestinian rights, and requiring America's embassy to be moved there by 1999. No president ordered it.

If Trump breaks tradition, he'll flagrantly violate international law, along with showing contempt for fundamental Palestinian rights. 

They're human beings - deserving and worthy as Jews and everyone else! 

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. 

His new book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III."

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com. 

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